Sunday, July 31, 2016

Old Spice present another helping of madness packed into
an aerosol container as a Wild West desperado looks set to meet his maker at
the hands of the local tyrant. Being a connoisseur of a certain male grooming
brand, however, the shackled protagonist is fully intent on walking into the
sunset. Bonkers.

We continue our search for the filming locations for
“Bullets Don’t Argue”. Garrett and Billy come upon the lifeless body of Billy
and they bury him. Pat’s horse is dying so he shoots him. Pat puts George on
his horse and Pat leads the horse on the trail across the desert back to Texas.

This scene was shot in the dunes of Cabo de Gato. The
same dunes seen in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” two years later.

A celebrated new production of Puccini’s La fanciulla del
West from the Vienna State opera featuring Jonas Kaufmann and Nina Stemme.
Staged by Marco Arturo Marelli, who sets it in a modern-day mining village,
with the feel of a gritty modern drama, during the American gold rush of 1849.
An unlikely setting for an Italian opera, but one that has a happy ending. It
tells the tale of Minnie, the bartender in the saloon whom all the local men
adore, and Dick Johnson alias Ramerrez, a notorious bandit. Dick and Minnie
fall in love on first meeting, so much so that he vows to change his life as a
bandit, sung by two contemporary great singers: Nina Stemme and Jonas Kaufmann.
A new production from Marco Arturo Marelli brought one of Puccini’s rarely
performed works to the Vienna State Opera stage in September 2013. Jonas
Kaufmann in his role debut as the wanted and notorious bandit Ramerrez proves
ideally cast, full of power, with his breathtakingly beautiful baritone timbre.
"Nina Stemme and Jonas Kaufmann are the opera’s must-see couple for a
generation… The rich playing of the Vienna orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst
shows up the colour and detail of Puccini’s score to spectacular effect”
Financial Times.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.